Tucson

The Center for Western Priorities team braved the August heat in Tucson, Arizona. After stopping for Eegee’s at the direction of Tucson-born CWP deputy director Aaron Weiss, we gathered Southern Arizona conservation leaders to hear about attacks on Arizona’s public lands.

A Sunday morning press conference at Brandi Fenton Memorial Park highlighted the ongoing threats to Arizona’s public lands, including increased risk of wildfire, limited access to educational programming in the parks, diminished earnings for local businesses, and pollution brought from companies seeking to extract natural resources, especially at Ironwood Forest National Monument and Saguaro National Park.

Speakers included Bill Wade, executive director of the Association of National Park Rangers, Pima County Supervisor Jen Allen, Kate Hotten, co-executive director of the Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection, and Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Center for Western Priorities.

“Although not subject to the endangered species act, the most endangered species in national parks today is the park ranger. America’s national parks are our country’s crown jewels. These attacks on staffing, science, and history are simply un-American.”

— Bill Wade, executive director of the Association of National Park Rangers and a former national park superintendent

Across Arizona and the country, funding and staffing shortages left national parks, monuments, and forests scrambling to serve summer visitors.